Halton Hatrick for Army

First many thanks to my guest correspondent,Tim Bailey, for the following:

RAF Back Home

The RAF returned to its roots for the first time since 1924; it was the first time since that date that they had played their Inter Service home match at an RAF base.  Previously they had played at Newbury, Gloucester and Twickenham.  The venue was RAF Halton but without floodlights this saw a reorganisation of the running order.  The Veterans kicked of a 1030, Women at 1100 and the Senior match at 1430.

RAF Vultures v Army Masters

The early start maybe affected the teams in what were rather scrappy affairs that were nevertheless competitive.  The Army ran out winners in the Veterans 20-11.

RAF(W) v Army(W)

The Women’s match saw the Army leave out many of their stars and in the first half this saw the RAF stay very much in touch within one score having managed to breech the Army’s line.  The Army finally rallied and went on to run out 24-7 winners.

RAF v Army

The Senior match started like so many other RAF Inter Services with the Army going over for an early opening score within 6 minutes of the start and the further increasing the margin to 14-0 at the 10th minute.  At this time the writing seemed to be on the wall for a hard day at the office for the RAF.  They however rallied and their defence that they had worked so hard on in training held strong, they had even narrowed the pitch in order to try and negate the Army’s elusive runners.  A moment before half time they were attacking out of defence and with the winger going chipping his opposite number only managed to put it into his belly and he then ran unopposed under the posts.  Having held out for 30 minutes they turned about 24-0 down, a cruel end to the half.

The second half saw the RAF come out with renewed vigour and they had an excellent first 10 minutes but to no avail.  They enjoyed large periods of possession throughout the half and threatened the Army’s line on a number of occasions but never managing to cross the whitewash.  It was here that the Army showed their class in first showing resolute defence but also taking advantage of every RAF missed tackle or error.  They ran a further 5 tries seemingly to convert every opportunity they had with very clinical finishing.

The final score of 59-0 could be considered a little harsh and the RAF had certainly deserved a score.

Match Reports

BFBS Video report is here.

RAF Vultures match (after a sorts) report is here.

RAF(W) match report is here.

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